Along with the recent improvement of communication infrastructure and development of information communication technology, information providing services using the Internet are becoming available.
For example, there are generated systems which offer information providing services, i.e., systems which offer services (image browsing services) in which image service sites (to be referred to as photo sites hereinafter) keep image data which users have taken by using image input devices in the storage areas of servers on the Internet and allow customers to browse again the image data at a desired time. There are also providers that provide such services.
In such a system which acquire input information input from a communication terminal and provides a service on the basis of the input information, a memory area called a cookie is ensured in the communication terminal to hold the input information. With this structure, the user need not repeatedly input the same information from the communication terminal.
That is, the input information input from the communication terminal is temporarily held in the cookie and then transmitted to an information processing apparatus. For this reason, when the system requires the same information again, the user need not input the same information.
However, there are some communication terminals which cannot ensure cookies because of a lack of sufficient memory areas. In this case, the user must input the same information many times. In addition, many portable terminals are inconvenient for character input, resulting in excess load on the user.
A photo site which provides an image browsing service manages a series of session information containing an access time, albums to be browsed, album image information, and the like for each access from a terminal. The photo site must also simultaneously manage actual album images.
The photo site which provides the image browsing service uses a session ID when accessed by a user. When a predetermined time has elapsed from the final access, session timeout occurs. From this time point, access with the previous session ID is refused.
Furthermore, since the number of pixels of a digital camera is increasing in recent years, the number of pixels of an original image also tends to increase. In a portable terminal, when an original image is to be browsed directly, the entire image may not be displayed in a window, or data transfer may be time-consuming. To prevent this, the photo site generates and manages browsing display images, i.e., images whose sizes or data amounts are decreased on the basis of uploaded original images.
At the time of providing the browsing service, the photo site makes a copy of a browsing display image file in the display area of the photo site server. At the end of the service, the photo site erases the browsing display image file that exists in the display area.
However, if the managed session information or the browsing display image file that is copied in the display area should be erased every time session timeout occurs during the image browsing service, a timeout time must be set and managed for each session.
In addition, the browsing display image is copied in the area for display in each session. The browsing display image must be erased after the session timeout of each session. However, to implement this processing, the browsing display image erase must be managed for each session.